No, I didn’t spend the week’s grocery money on an expensive orchid but there comes a time when almost every hobby orchid grower decides, “Enough is enough!” 

The following notes are written mainly for novices and beginners who might be entering plants in a show for the first time.

The Shoalhaven Orchid Society celebrated its 60th birthday in 2016 and members have enjoyed a further five years of friendship and friendly competition since then.

Scale insect is probably the biggest pest of cultivated orchids. There are many species of scale but Boisduval scale appears to be the most common. These sap suckers can severely deplete or even kill an orchid if there is a heavy infestation.

Most orchid societies have a break over the summer period so there are some orchids that you rarely see on the benches because this is precisely the time that they come into bloom. 

Spring cleaning isn’t just for carpets and cupboards. Orchid collections benefit from regular clean ups as well.

As the weather cools down it is time to start preparing your plants for the winter season.

In some respects, autumn is quite a busy time for the orchid hobbyist. 

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Reedstem Epidendrums are a large group of plants whose cultivation dates back hundreds of years.

The conventions for naming orchids are set out in the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.